Pages

Friday, December 29, 2006

Reflctions on The Temple of Doom

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I finally bought myself The Indiana Jones Trilogy on DVD. Last night, I finally had the opportunity to sit down and watch Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. I have fond memories of Temple of Doom.

I'm not quite sure what to call it, but I'm sure that you'll agree that, in our childhoods, we eventually reach a point where we become...aware of pop culture. We realize that there's more to life than Sesame Street and Saturday morning cartoons and we discover that there's this great big world out there. There is that point where we suddenly realize there's so much more out there....

Well, Temple of Doom came out right when I was developing that awareness. I tell ya, it was a turning point in my maturity.One of the first comic books I have clear memories of is issue number 2 of the comic book adaptation of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

Granted, I did own comic books before that one, but Temple of Doom is the first one where images stand out...I identified with the characters...where I remember reading it over and over again. In many of my distorted memories, I often call it the first comic book I ever had.

I ran out and bought issue number 3. It was a 3-issue mini-series. I never found issue number one.... By the time I finally got around to seeing Temple of Doom, I was intimitly familiar with the final two-thirds of the film...seeing the film was more about seeing how it began.

You don't see a lot of comic book adaptations of big summer blockbusters any more. I"ll have to ask my aspiring comic book artist friend why that is. The soundtrack for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom has been out of print for many years. Finding a copy is near-impossible. Finding a copy on CD is even more difficult, as the CD was only ever released in Japan.

I have the soundtrack for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. On CD.

I tell ya, when I just randomly grabbed it off the shelf at that little music shop in the Kumagaya train station, I damn near shit my pants when I realized what I was holding. I prayed no one else would buy it as I ran across the street to hit the ATM for more cash.

I played it over and over in my tiny apartment in Kumagaya. That film score is an integral part of my "soundtrack of Japan."

I simply must get that movie poster for Temple of Doom.

I've often told the story of the movie poster for Return of the Jedi, and why it's significant to me. The movie poster for Return of the Jedi used to hang in the lobby of the West Edmonton Mall movie theatre West Mall 5, where I saw a lot of movies in my childhood. I'd stare at the poster for Return of the Jedi for what seemed like hours as I waited to get into a movie.

But, what I rarely share was that, right next to the poster for Return of the Jedi was the poster for...Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

I have the poster for Jedi. It'd be nice to hang the two next to each other again. Rumors still persist of a fourth Indiana Jones movie. One of my big fantasies about Indiana Jones 4 would be getting some Hong Kong action star - like Jet Li maybe - to play a grown-up Short Round.

Apparently, the only thing holding back Indy 4 right now is the fact that George Lucas has became a totaly anal perfectionist towards the script. Which isn't a bad thing.

While it doesn't have a fandom on the level of Star Wars, the Indiana Jones films still represent quite a bit to a lot of people.